


A Fortress of Our Own

by chaoticmitochondria



Series: Her Imperial Pacifism [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternian culture as it morphs from HIC to HIP rule, F/M, Her Imperial Pacifism, Sollux does his job as government and Terezi does her job as moirail, Swapstuck, restructuring Alternia, rewriting legislation for a bloodthirsty teenage colony is hard and nobody understands, they make a damn good team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 13:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14403015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticmitochondria/pseuds/chaoticmitochondria
Summary: 'Delegation and cooperation,' Kanaya had said, her tone less reprimanding than affirmative. 'If you rewrite the system under them, it creates more friction than actual societal change.''Diplomacy is fucking lame,' Sollux had responded despondently, letting his head hit the table between them. She just laughed.- - -Restructuring Alternia from the bottom-up is never an easy job, but Sollux manages. Barely. A small snapshot of Sollux and Terezi's moirailship, as well as actual blood caste law discussion.





	A Fortress of Our Own

**Author's Note:**

> For more notes on this AU, please refer to the series page of 'Her Imperial Pacifism'!
> 
> Quick Notes for just this piece:  
> \- Characters: Terezi Leijon, Sollux Pyrope  
> \- Terezi and Sollux are established moirails  
> \- Sollux is trying to rebuild government on Alternia while the Empress handles the adult population in space

"And that is why," the cobalt-blooded troll said triumphantly as he closed his notebook, "psiionic regulation should be enforced on Alternia under Her Imperial Pacifism."

Sollux cast a weary glance to the yellow-blood troll, the third member of this audience. She had her fists balled tightly and was doing the kind of breathing exercises he recognized as to prevent sparks releasing from high emotion or stress. He was pretty impressed with her control; then again, any psiionic light would serve the purpose of the smug-looking cobalt.

Sollux turned to focus on said highblood. Leaning forward on his elbows, he said mildly, "You realize what you are proposing is a soft re-institution of the caste-law Her Disgraced Condescension used to force yellow bloods to be mutilated and conscripted into the piloting of her ships?"

The troll did not look so smug now.

"Hey, I-I'm talking about psiionics here!" He said, trying to recover. "A dangerous power that could be very destructive if not controlled! It has nothing to do with blood color."

Eugh. Sollux rubbed his temple. While the troll was certainly biased enough to pretend yellow-bloods were the majority of both Helmsmen and trolls with psiionic power, he had a point about the destructiveness of untrained power.

"Councilor Pyrope," said the yellow-blood after a pause. "May I reply?"

Sollux waved a hand in assent. A bad idea.

The yellow blood immediately turned a furious look at the other troll, whose confidence grew on her emotionality.

"The only dangerous thing about untrained psiionics is people like you using the caste system to justify the upsetting and degradation of a troll for powers they couldn't control being born with!"

"So you admit you can't control them all the time?" shot back the other troll. Yellow rushed in the other troll's face. Her breathing was not in a calming pattern anymore. She shot back,

"Do you admit you have no designs to help yellow bloods, like you say, and instead just want to enslave us just like before--"

Sollux stood up and slammed his hands on the table. Both trolls stopped immediately. Gog, was it nice to be listened to.

"We're getting off track," he pointed out. "This meeting is not the place to argue about old caste politics, unless they are being contested as civil liberty cases." He picked up the folder that held his copy of the document the cobalt troll gave him.

"All the same, the language in your document, Mr. Kirkan," he continued, "is unfit for a proper bill request, and clearly has no input or perspective from the trolls you claim to be helping. Which is why Ms. Leelan had to be summoned by my office." He gave him a long stare, enough for Kirkan to look away.

"Since untrained psiionics is still a viable concern, however, I do demand a second revision. Focus less on regulation, and more on education. Ms Leelan," he addressed, and she jumped slightly.

"Yes, sir?"

"It is true that trolls with psiionic power can be taught how to control it without external modifiers?"

She nodded her head enthusiastically. "Yes, sir. In fact--"

"That was a rhetorical question," Sollux interrupted. "I knew the answer, but I doubt Mr Kirkan did, or believed it." He paused, looking at both the trolls in front of him, both uncertain and trading glances. With a sigh, he sat back down.

"Ms. Leelan, you will help Mr. Kirkan re-write his bill. I expect a solution that involves acknowledgment of the historical bias and violence that we all wish to avoid, how to solve the issue of untrained psiionics without immediate disciplinary actions, and suggestions for a system to employ whatever method you come up with. Am I clear?"

He got muttered assent from both parties, clearly not looking forward to working together. Sollux didn't care. Not his problem any more. Even if he already had the solution. Even if monitoring the progress of these two would be stressful as hell.

 _Delegation and cooperation,_ Kanaya had said, her tone less reprimanding than affirmative. _If you rewrite the system under them, it creates more friction than actual societal change._

 _Diplomacy is fucking lame,_ Sollux had responded despondently, letting his head hit the table between them. She had laughed.

 _Believe me, I know,_ she had responded wryly. _More coffee?_

Being off-world had been so nice for the brief break it was.

"You're dismissed," Sollux said to the trolls in front of him. As soon as they closed the door, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes until they burned.

His intercom crackled. "Councillor, your--"

His door flew open, and there stood his moirail, dragon hood on, leaves in her hair, smile as wide and sharp as a particularly fierce cuttlefish. Behind her was his flustered secretary and the trolls who had just exited, looking a little like they had narrowly escaped a hurricane.

Sollux smiled for the first time all day.

"Tetrea, cancel the rest of today," he said. His assistant opened her mouth, closed it, and gave up with a resigned smile of her own.

"You got it. Come on, you two, you've been dismissed--" Terezi closed the door on the cleanup, then leant against it.

"The whole day, Mr. Pyrope?" She said cutely, feigning shyness. "You must have the papping stamina of a butlermusclebeast lusus."

"I changed my mind," he said in a deadpan. "Bring on the masses." Her laugh was bright and loud and beautiful. She came and sat on his desk, and he sat down next to her. For a moment there was just silence and her head on his shoulder, and for a brief moment Sollux remembered what peace felt like.

"Can we--" The words were barely out of his mouth before Terezi pressed a kiss to his cheek and got up to turn off the lights. She wordlessly handed him her sylladex to appearify a stupid amount of pillows and furs and chalk and the scalemates she knew he secretly liked so much, a dump of soft toys in the middle of his work office. It would be absurd if it wasn't exactly what he needed.

He fell face-first, laying in the plush while Terezi quietly sorted them into something at least resembling a pile around them. Another thing he loved about his moirail: her ability to be absolutely silent, whatever she did. A cat thing, or whatever. He was losing threads of thought already, the vibration of sensory perception narrowing to the silken, lumpy floor beneath him, and then Terezi's hands carding through his hair. She started a low humming, but stopped when he gave a little jerk of his head. Instead she leaned down to kiss his forehead before retreating, letting him close his eyes and settle himself into a state where he could be (and would crave) touch. Nothing could harm him here with Terezi standing guard; not even himself.

"Love you," he eventually whispered, readjusting to be a little closer. She lay down next to him, her nose gently pressed onto his shoulder, her hand going back to soothing motions on his head. He chirred a little, and she started up a reciprocal purr, light and deep and settling.

"Go to sleep," she replied fondly, her purr grumbling her tone. He turned his body into hers and did precisely that.

Maybe it was indecent to make a pile of his office. But he left it so little anyway, and if there was something his moirail understood, it was the importance of placement. Besides, to be quite honest, Sollux Pyrope gave absolutely no fucks to any public perception. He could never hold a personality other than his own for longer than a few minutes. He thought that's why Kanaya chose him for this, other than his perfect placement in the middle of the hemospectrum and knowledge of law. Because no one could look at him and see anything more or less than a tired, cranky legislator who's damn best was leagues above anyone else on this damn planet. He deserved his moirail and he deserved her wherever they damn well pleased.

He cuddled closer, and when the purring turned to humming again, he didn't mind it anymore. And finally, eventually, winding down like a broken clock, he slipped into sleep.


End file.
